Swinger

If it werent for students, we wouldnt have any doctors, scientists, engineers, archeitects etc etc... just hope u realise that who u call scum now, may in the future hold your life in their hands on an operating table

War Hero

It seems more plausible that the young are succumbing to the material complacency that is paralysing the peoples of several western democracies, rendering them apparently unwilling to consider idealistic issues at all.

Show me an ideal that has worked in practice and I might get interested, but until that point go away. Material complacency is a strange phrase to use, is it supposed to mean that I'm complacent because I have all the gadgets associated with the 4th largest economy in the world? Should I renounce it and live off a complacency free diet of grass and badger poo? Lets have a quick rundown of some past western ideals:

National socialism; what a winner that turned out to be.

Communism; nice try but that experiment can hardly be called a success can it.

Religous orthodoxy; we binned that idea as soon as Cromwell died and have never looked back. I wonder why?

Capitalism; well, it may be messy, nasty and unethical but it has seen the UK well for several hundred years now. It may be far from perfect but it does work.

All in all I think this article is just an editorial musing and not actually worth any serious discussion. If it is intended to be serious then I for one think it 's a big bag of smelly shite.

LE

Just because I am ignorant, does anyone care to tell me how many student protests have succeeded in changing things in recent years. How many of the changes that have come in that affect the student popualtion happenend despite student activism?

amended - When did public opinion carry any weight with the present government? whether it be student protestors or otherwise?
petrol crisis,
Anti war
Countryside alliance,

Clanker

Well, first I must apologise to all over-sensitive student types out there.

With regards student protests achieving anything, Tiananmen square certainly created a lot more work for the Chinese army; someone had to clean bits of student out of the tank tracks, and someone had to sweep all the bits of student up.

What I was complaining about was not so much the lack of student protests, but the all pervasive apathy, that has pervaded every aspect of higher education. It is no longer about learning; it is about getting as many people through the door, as quickly as possible, with minimum engagment.

If half of all school leavers are supposed to enter higher education in the next five years, what are they going to study? Do they care what they study? Or is another three years in education simply a way to avoid the rigours of the real world?

War Hero

Just because I am ignorant, does anyone care to tell me how many student protests have succeeded in changing things in recent years. How many of the changes that have come in that affect the student popualtion happenend despite student activism?

MIA

Swinger

The May 1968 Paris student riots had a fundamental impact on French and Wider European society. The Paris Student Riots are now seen as a major watershead event in France. As Charles Dickens put it about an earlier French Revolution, "They were the best of times, they were the worst of times. Surely the virtual open warfare in the strrets of Paris during those May days shattered the old order in France more surely than any popular uprising since the Great revolution of 1789. Students and police clashed around burning cars and barricades. Half the French work force struck in solidarity-freezing the gears of a society which at the time was enjoying record prosperity. As a result, the mighty Charles de Gaulle fell from what had seemed a presidency for life